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Will London be Social?

The Euro is over (well done, Spain) and now the sporting world is gearing up for the London Summer Olympics. But is the social media universe going to join in?

Marketers and digital media experts are already watching to see how big a role social media will play in the biggest sporting event in the world.

In fact, Deloitte has already done a survey of Internet users in Europe and North America to find out how they’ll be watching and talking about the games. Results: 28 percent of Americans said they would chat about results on social media, compared to a low of 14 percent for respondents from Germany.

It’s a solid response, but one critics say won’t be bolstered by the marketing sector. The problem is that the Olympics are so darn protective of their intellectual property that aside from big name sponsors like Coca Cola and TV broadcasters, smaller businesses, organizations and community groups cannot use the games as part of an on-the-fly marketing strategy unless they are very careful.

So people on the ground are not going to be hyping the games while they promote themselves on social media — they could get their wrists slapped legally by the International Olympic Committee.

That leaves just the fans to chat about their favourite athletes, countries and scores. They’ll do so, in the billions. This may open up the social media lines for viewers, keeping them clean of marketing chatter. But it won’t be so great for business.